A toner jet printer and method of use for printing images by manipulating individual toner particles using two-dimensional print cell arrays built by micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technologies. Toner particles are positioned by electrostatic forces within each print cell. Each cell is then addressed electronically to eject one or more toner particles from an addressed cell, by a combination of mechanical and electrical forces controlled by a micro actuator, toward a substrate. As such, a mechanical assist is provided to aid in electrostatic transfer. The printer is capable of high-speed, two-dimensional printing.
There are known direct electrostatic printers, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,743,926, 4,814,796, 4,860,036 and 4,876,561, all to Schmidlin and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, that eliminate an intermediate transfer drum. There are also known micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) that have been used as basic electro mechanical structures, such as nozzles, suspension beams, hinges and diaphragms. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,418,418, 5,239,222, 5,313,451, 5,444,191, 5,526,172, 5,083,857, 5,457,493, and 4,956,619. These have proven feasible and sufficiently reliable for use in critical components. Rapid advances of MEMS technologies in recent years have produced commercial products in various application areas. One of these is the ink jet printer. However, until now, such technologies have not been applied to xerographic printing technology.